The Facts About Binding Referendums

Steve Baron founded the Better Democracy NZ movement in 2003 initially under the banner of Voters Voice. He was born in Wanganui and at the age of twenty moved to Auckland were he lived for over twenty years. In 2006 he moved to Cambridge in the Waikato to pursue his passion for horse racing and continue with the work of Better Democracy NZ.

The reason for forming Better Democracy NZ was to put pressure on politicians for change and to raise the awareness of Binding Referendums as a political tool. He was frustrated that politicians were supposed to be representing the wishes of the people who elected them, but weren't. Instead they were simply pushing their own hidden agendas and in many cases going against what the majority of New Zealanders wanted on many controversial issues.

There is an underlying feeling among New Zealanders that real democracy has been and is being threatened in New Zealand by past and present governments Many of us feel we have lost control of the politicians we elect. The ideological beliefs of past and present politicians are being forced upon us without a mandate or majority support of New Zealanders and many feel powerless to check this unbridled power. For far too long politicians have been arrogant and out of touch with what the majority of New Zealanders want.

Initially Steve Baron applied to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in April 2003 for a petition to make referendums binding on the government to enable New Zealanders to have checks and balances on their politicians. It soon became obvious that there was a huge amount of grassroots support for his ideas throughout the country. Unfortunately the number of signatures required to trigger a nationwide referendum were not met because people didn't believe the government would listen to them anyway and thought referendums just weren't worth the paper they were written on. However a very respectable 20,209 signatures were collected.

Since then Winston Peters and the NZ First Party through discussions with Better Democracy NZ have declared their support for Binding Referendums. This is a huge step forward and feel we have had a huge effect in making this happen. However there is still a long way to go to ensure a truly democratic New Zealand. New Zealand is still very much a two party club and one of the major parties must be convinced to support Binding Referendums to bring this eventuality about. To date the Labour Party has been staunch in it's opposition to Binding Referendums but the National Party has been making some overtures.